Brief Personal History
Mary Bowron was a self-taught artist with work spanning 6 decades. She developed her oeuvre in several mediums; ceramics being most well-known during her lifetime. Her body of work in monoprints and painting is extensive but was largely kept private until 2017.
Mary was born in Alabama in 1933. Her childhood was spent in the southern United States; born in Alabama, moving to Louisiana as a toddler and spending significant time in Mississippi. She attributed her early love of clay to, “playing in the mud,” in the countryside of her youth. By nature, she was preternaturally creative, imaginative and uninterested in convention.
Mary started producing ceramics in the 1960’s at the Pot Shop in Venice Beach, CA, with Hank Murrow and Jane Heald.
In 1964 Mary moved briefly to Washington, DC and then to Maryland. In Chevy Chase, Maryland, she built the first of several kilns and personal studios. This first kiln, with catenary arch, was outdoors and gas-fired.
In 1969 Mary moved with her young family to Bethesda, MD, again building a gas kiln. This Bethesda kiln was significantly larger and housed in a building behind the house. She continued to pot at this location until moving to rural Maryland in 1980. Her earlier works were largely wheel-thrown functional wares.
After having moved to a farm in Boyds, Maryland, she built her third gas kiln. The farm’s old bank barn and out-buildings became her creative center for work in clay. In this setting, she began to introduce more hand-built pieces and sculpture. She experimented with pit firing.
Mary’s farm was a creative paradise where she was able to periodically return to and exercise her facility with printing and painting, amassing an astonishing additional body of work. There are examples from her teens of copperplate etching, something she briefly touched on in adulthood but was keeping for the time when she could no longer manage clay work.
On her farm in Boyds, Mary designed and worked alongside a team of devoted friends and fellow artists to build her remarkable and massive anagama kiln.
As the physical demands of working with clay would from time to time require respite, Mary always looked forward to spending more time with her works on paper and with photography.
Mary lived and worked in Boyds until just prior to her untimely passing at the age of 84. As she would remark, “I have so much more to say.”
Museum Permanent Collections
Alverno College - Milwaukee, WI
American Visionary Art Museum - Baltimore, MD
Cameron Art Museum - Wilmington, NC
George Mason University - Fairfax, VA
Gregg Museum of Art and Design - Raleigh, NC
Hood College - Frederick, MD
John Michael Kohler Arts Center - Sheboygan, WI
LaGrange Art Museum - LaGrange, GA
The Lilley Museum of Art - Reno, NV
Ripon College - Ripon, WI
St Norbert College - De Pere, WI
The Alice C. Sabatini Gallery - Topeka, KS
University of Wisconsin - Sheboygan, WI
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts - Hagerstown, MD
Selected Exhibitions
“Triumphant Traditions,” Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Maryland 2019
“Mary Bowron - A Life of Expression,” Hood College, Frederick, MD, 2018
”Mary Bowron - Selected Work,” 52nd Annual Conference of NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) Pittsburgh, PA 2018
“The Great Mystery Show,” American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, 2017-2018
“REACH,” The Tevis Gallery at Carroll Arts Center, Westminster, MD, 2015
“Pyro Protagonists: A Generation of Ceramic Artists,” Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, 2014
“Mary Bowron: Works in Clay,” Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, 2013
“Silent Witness,” Amnesty International Human Rights Arts Festival, Silver Spring, MD, 2010
“Hand Thrown: The Fine Art of Pinched and Coiled Ceramics,” Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, 2010
“Architectural Echoes in Clay,” UNC Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, Hendersonville, NC, 2006
“In The Spirit of Tradition,” Montgomery College Pavilion of Fine Arts, Takoma Park, MD, 2002
“American Shino,” Babcock Gallery, New York, New York, 2001
“Mary Bowron,” Jackie Chalkley, Washington, DC, 1985
“Ceramics for Kitchen and Table,” Appalachiana, Bethesda, Maryland, 1973